Interrupted

My Life Thus Far
2008-02-13 06:07:29 (UTC)

Light In My Life

****

It was such a beautiful day outside. So nice, I almost
went outside, but not that beautiful. Instead, I opened
the blinds so the sun could come in. I'm not used to sun
right now. Usually I go to work when it's still overcast
and foggy in the morning and get off when it's dark. So,
I'm reacclimating myself to sunlight. It was nice getting
a little light in my life.

I had a quiet day for the most part, until around 4pm.
Then all crap broke lose. Kiki took a turn for the worse
today, so we ended up in the ER. Left with nothing else to
do with my time, I pulled out the little note pad and pen
I keep in my purse and started writing...

I'm sitting here in the Emergency Room with idle time on
my hands-lots of it. This time it's Kiki. I've known for a
couple days now that she's sick, but it became apparent
today that she isn't getting any better. Yet another day
of sleeping. By 3:30pm I decided to wake her, giver her a
bath and assess the situation. Snookums came home from
work as I was taking her out of the tub. No "hi"
or "hello". He simply asked "are you taking her in?" I
figured if my usually ambivalent husband could clearly see
she was unwell, it was time to have her seen.

We spent about an hour and a half sitting in the waiting
room. Stuck in between two crotchety old ladies and a guy
and his teenaged son. The old ladies were offended by King
of the Hill. The guy and his son made fun of the
Westminster dog show the ladies insisted on watching
instead. Needless to say I was glad when Kiki was called
back. Now she's curled up in the fetal position, sleeping
on the exam table. Luckily, our exam room is located near
the nurse's lounge, so I get to hear about who didn't call
who and who's going to who's house. It's like the real
life Grey's Anatomy, only the most interesting thing they
see is vomiting and nosebleeds .I almost feel bad for
them. It must make their shifts seem long.

As I sit here and look at Kiki, I think of a picture I saw
online awhile ago. I can't remember why I was looking at
it or how I found it, but it was profound. It was a 19th
century postmortem portrait of a baby girl. She was
propped up and made to look like she was asleep. I can't
help but feel very fortunate to live in this period of
time. Kiki would have died at birth if it wasn't for
modern medicine. Kids died from lesser things than Kiki
catches monthly. Come to think of it, Snookums wouldn't
have survived birth, either. Maybe modern medicine is
weakening the human gene pool, but I'm grateful for it.
I'd miss my weak-gened family members.

So, that's what I wrote in the ER. It saves me some time
now. Since I'm really tired, but I will update you on what
happened after that. The doctor came in and assessed Kiki.
Turns out, it was the same doctor that saw Annie 10 days
ago. It was pretty much deja vu. Kiki decided she needed
to one-up her big sister by rupturing BOTH ear drums. Only
the doctor wasn't 100% sure because all he could see when
he looked in her ear was puss. He thinks she ruptured them
based on the amount of puss and fluid draining from her
ears. When I gave her a bath this afternoon, she was thick
chunks of crust in her ears (yucky, I know). Being a mom
is so NOT glamorous. A real mom, not the celebrity-type
that take their kids out for photo-ops, then drop them off
with a nanny. Although, I secretly dream of being that
type of mom sometimes. Minus the celebrity.

Kiki was so sick, she was lethargic. They wanted to give
her IV fluids because she was so dehydrated, but the
doctor took pity on her and just gave her a Popsicle. It
was the only thing she ate today. When she's better, I'm
going to have to re-fatten her up. Although she is only 15
pounds lighter than Annie. I don't think I have too much
to worry about in that department.

I'm going to go now. I need to go check on her. I'm so
scared that she's just going to keep getting worse. I
don't think she's ever looked so sick. Ciao for now.




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